Moravian Academy launches Spanish immersion kindergarten program

Updated on Jan 12, 2015 at 06:02 AM EST

Lower School teacher Melika Matlack interacts with kindergartener Aaron Gordon, 6, during a class made up of kindergarten students in the Spanish Immersion Program at Moravian Academy's Lower School. This is the first year of Moravian Academy's Spanish Immersion Program and it gives students the chance to learn a second language early with the teacher speaking to the students only in Spanish.

Lower School teacher Melika Matlack instructs kindergartener Aaron Gordon, 6, during a class made up of kindergarten students in the Spanish Immersion Program at Moravian Academy's Lower School. This is the first year of Moravian Academy's Spanish Immersion Program and it gives students the chance to learn a second language early with the teacher speaking to the students only in Spanish.

Kindergartner Goldie Waldman, 5, raises her hand to answer a question during a class made up of kindergarten students in the Spanish Immersion Program at Moravian Academy's Lower School. This is the first year of Moravian Academy's Spanish Immersion Program and it gives students the chance to learn a second language early with the teacher speaking to the students only in Spanish.

Kindergartner Manav Thompson, 6, acts out words to a song with others during a class made up of kindergarten students in the Spanish Immersion Program at Moravian Academy's Lower School. This is the first year of Moravian Academy's Spanish Immersion Program and it gives students the chance to learn a second language early with the teacher speaking to the students only in Spanish.

Kindergartners Gavin Cascino, left, 6, and Vivian John, center, 5, are instructed by Lower School teacher Melika Matlack, right, during a class made up of kindergarten students in the Spanish Immersion Program at Moravian Academy's Lower School. This is the first year of Moravian Academy's Spanish Immersion Program and it gives students the chance to learn a second language early with the teacher speaking to the students only in Spanish.

A card game is written in Spanish for children in a class made up of kindergarten students in the Spanish Immersion Program at Moravian Academy's Lower School. This is the first year of Moravian Academy's Spanish Immersion Program and it gives students the chance to learn a second language early with the teacher speaking to the students only in Spanish.

Children sit together during a class made up of kindergarten students in the Spanish Immersion Program at Moravian Academy's Lower School. This is the first year of Moravian Academy's Spanish Immersion Program and it gives students the chance to learn a second language early with the teacher speaking to the students only in Spanish.

Carrie Rohman knew
Moravian Academy's
Spanish immersion kindergarten program was working when her six-year-old son began striking up conversations with strangers in Spanish.

In November, the Easton resident brought her son, Gavin Cascino, to a conference with her in Baltimore.

While out to dinner, Rohman began chatting with a woman at the next table and the woman asked Gavin a question in English.

"He spontaneously responded in Spanish, recognizing before I had that she was a Spanish speaker. We were completely amazed," Rohman recalled. "Her English was so natural, that it hadn't really occurred to me she might speak Spanish, but Gavin knew instinctively that he could answer her in Spanish."

The 18 students spend the entire day speaking and learning in Spanish. The program will eventually expand to fourth grade, with hopes of students being bilingual by the time they reach middle school.

Every student in Moravian's Lower School in Bethlehem receive 15 minutes of instruction in Spanish daily. School officials were struck by how quickly students picked up the language at such a young age.

The immersion program was a dream of teacher Melika Matlack, herself a product of the Southern Lehigh School District's Spanish immersion program.

"It works and it's just not all that common," Matlack said of immersion at a young age.

Kindergartners are still developing their English language skills and many of them are not yet reading. It allows the children to learn a new language much the way they learned English, she said.

"They start to utilize it naturally," Matlack said.

It happens at different rates for each child but they are so capable of adapting and adjusting to their environments, she said. If it were a class full of 18 adults, it just wouldn't work; adults would get frustrated too easily, she said.

Five-year-old Vivian John initially came home from kindergarten overwhelmed at first, her mother Emmy John, of Palmer Township, said.

But soon her parents were watching her lining up her toys saying nino, nina -- boy, girl -- just how she and her classmates line up at school, Vivian explained. She proudly came home one day and recited the entire Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, John said.

Children start using the new words they learn in play quite quickly, in a manner that is so natural it's remarkable, Matlack said.

Matlack is assisted by teacher Maria Martin Sanchez, a native speaker of Castilian Spanish, who attended a Basque immersion school.

"We can really empathize with the children's feelings in the beginning," Matlack said.

The Johns allowed Vivian to process school at her own pace and by October she was proud to share what she learned, her mom said.

John and Rohman both say they loved the idea of their children becoming fluent in second languages. Neither they nor their husbands are fluent in another language but they've tried to learn another language at an older age, which they both found challenging.

The Johns and their elder two daughters, who attend Moravian as well, are using Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish along with Vivian, John said. Rohman and her husband hope to pick up some Spanish as well.

"(Gavin) is really exhibiting a love of learning Spanish and a wonderful curiosity and sense of pride in his developing skills," Rohman said. "He often corrects our very rudimentary pronunciation of Spanish words, and it's pretty fantastic to see him feeling that kind of ownership of his new language skills."

If this year's kindergarteners stick with the program through fourth grade, they will be able to study Mandarin or French starting in sixth grade. In fifth grade, one of their classes will be taught in Spanish to make sure they don't lose their language skills and they will get to sample both Mandarin and French.

"Ideally, we would like our students to graduate speaking three languages," said George King Jr., Moravian headmaster.